Phoenix is probably the best team to help with eating our cap. Sarver is known to be a cheap owner. I'd take on Childress or Warrick for a first rounder.

I wouldn't. The Raptors are better off just being players in free agency than doing that. The key to my idea is to not take on long term burdens. When Childress and Warrick expire doesn't appeal to the Raptors nor do they offer long term hope of being part of the long term solution.

I wouldn't. The Raptors are better off just being players in free agency than doing that. The key to my idea is to not take on long term burdens. When Childress and Warrick expire doesn't appeal to the Raptors nor do they offer long term hope of being part of the long term solution.

Okay I see what you're trying to do. I think another option then could be Zaza Pachulia from Atlanta. Atlanta will need the additional cap space to resign Josh Smith (or get out of of the luxury tax).. and once Horford comes back they have their center.

Atlanta's pick should be in the mid to low 20's, and Zaza would make a decent backup center to JV next year. His contract expires in 2013.

Example #3

Biedrins used to be thought of in a similar way to how people look at Marc Gasol. That being a young, talented center who can fill up the stats sheet. "The sky's the limit." Three seasons ago Biedrins became plagued with injuries and somewhere along the line a flag was raised about his defense. It's gotten so bad that the Warrior went out this fall and rented Kwame Brown for $7M in desperation to shore up their interior defense. It's safe to say Biedrins has lost the confidence of management in Golden State and he's probably not a long term option for them anymore. They don't have the staff to turn his career around but the Raptors may and for a one year rental its worth the shot and here's why. Biedrins is one of the best rebounders in the league, he's a legit center in size and stature and he has the tools to be a good defender. Like Bargnani, he's been misguided by spotty coaching for a lot of his career when it comes to defense. Should Biedrin regain his health, Dwayne Casey might be the perfect coach to help him turn it around. If that were to happen you would be looking at a solid starter next season while JV becomes acclimated to North America and the NBA game. Once that happens the Raptors would have a reserve big man who could come in and give them David Lee-esque Knicks 6th man era production. That would be huge for this team. Not only that but they probably also get another 1st rounder in 2013 as the Warrior are good enough now before upgrades to stay out of the bottom ten. Speaking of the Warrior, dumping Biedrins would lower their cap number to roughly $37M, that's $21M below a hypothetical $58M cap. What that does is allow them to take yet another run at a high profile FA center. This years' lineup features Dwight Howard, Andrew Bynum, Roy Hibbert and Brook Lopez. Depending on which center they may land(Brook Lopez seems the most attainable) they would have enough to take a shot at one of the high profile forwards as well such as Nic Batum, Wilson Chandler, Gerald Wallace, Ryan Anderson, Kris Humphries and Michael Beasely. So you see, the Warriors could potentially take a giant leap forward by dumping Biedrins and the price of a 1st rounder, which would probably be late teens as a worst case scenario should things go as planned, would be a great move.

At the end of the 2013 season the Raptors would clear $19.5M between Calderon and Biedrins. That might allow them to be players next summer but it certainly would allow them to be big time players next trade deadline with two big expiring contracts as chips.

Biedrins used to be thought of in a similar way to how people look at Marc Gasol. That being a young, talented center who can fill up the stats sheet. "The sky's the limit." Three seasons ago Biedrins became plagued with injuries and somewhere along the line a flag was raised about his defense. It's gotten so bad that the Warrior went out this fall and rented Kwame Brown for $7M in desperation to shore up their interior defense. It's safe to say Biedrins has lost the confidence of management in Golden State and he's probably not a long term option for them anymore. They don't have the staff to turn his career around but the Raptors may and for a one year rental its worth the shot and here's why. Biedrins is one of the best rebounders in the league, he's a legit center in size and stature and he has the tools to be a good defender. Like Bargnani, he's been misguided by spotty coaching for a lot of his career when it comes to defense. Should Biedrin regain his health, Dwayne Casey might be the perfect coach to help him turn it around. If that were to happen you would be looking at a solid starter next season while JV becomes acclimated to North America and the NBA game. Once that happens the Raptors would have a reserve big man who could come in and give them David Lee-esque Knicks 6th man era production. That would be huge for this team. Not only that but they probably also get another 1st rounder in 2013 as the Warrior are good enough now before upgrades to stay out of the bottom ten. Speaking of the Warrior, dumping Biedrins would lower their cap number to roughly $37M, that's $21M below a hypothetical $58M cap. What that does is allow them to take yet another run at a high profile FA center. This years' lineup features Dwight Howard, Andrew Bynum, Roy Hibbert and Brook Lopez. Depending on which center they may land(Brook Lopez seems the most attainable) they would have enough to take a shot at one of the high profile forwards as well such as Nic Batum, Wilson Chandler, Gerald Wallace, Ryan Anderson, Kris Humphries and Michael Beasely. So you see, the Warriors could potentially take a giant leap forward by dumping Biedrins and the price of a 1st rounder, which would probably be late teens as a worst case scenario should things go as planned, would be a great move.

At the end of the 2013 season the Raptors would clear $19.5M between Calderon and Biedrins. That might allow them to be players next summer but it certainly would allow them to be big time players next trade deadline with two big expiring contracts as chips.

Wet blanket alert.

Biedrins contract has a player option for 2013-14 at $9M - you would have to think it will be exercised.

GSW 2012 pick is already top 7 protected to Utah.

I would definitely do this if it weren't for the pick already going to Utah except I'd be looking for a top 3 protected pick.

We don't need another 1st rounder ... 2 rookies, and another several core pieces under 23 is enough.
-We should be looking to absorb vets like Martin for their own value, not for trying to attach another pick.

The only way to bag a classy lady is to give her two tickets to the gun show... and see if she likes the goods.

We don't need another 1st rounder ... 2 rookies, and another several core pieces under 23 is enough.
-We should be looking to absorb vets like Martin for their own value, not for trying to attach another pick.

Acquiring picks doesn't mean you have to keep them. Whatever we don't need/want is trade bait for future transactions.

I wouldn't. The Raptors are better off just being players in free agency than doing that. The key to my idea is to not take on long term burdens. When Childress and Warrick expire doesn't appeal to the Raptors nor do they offer long term hope of being part of the long term solution.

This is a great idea, but I worry that teams are less likely to include a 1st round pick with a player who will be an expiring contract as early as next season, unless they are super desperate to clear cap space for another deal. My expectation, when wanting a 1st round pick included, is that the player coming to Toronto would be signed beyond next season. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I think the conversation changes at least a little bit when you think "long term money" VS "2013 expiring contract".

Biedrins contract has a player option for 2013-14 at $9M - you would have to think it will be exercised.

GSW 2012 pick is already top 7 protected to Utah.

I would definitely do this if it weren't for the pick already going to Utah except I'd be looking for a top 3 protected pick.

Swing and a miss. Well, you get the idea anyway. I probably should have checked my facts a bit closer on the Warrior example but the idea is well established now and I feel this is a route that Colangelo could go because he thinks outside the box.

CalgaryRapsFan wrote:

This is a great idea, but I worry that teams are less likely to include a 1st round pick with a player who will be an expiring contract as early as next season, unless they are super desperate to clear cap space for another deal. My expectation, when wanting a 1st round pick included, is that the player coming to Toronto would be signed beyond next season. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I think the conversation changes at least a little bit when you think "long term money" VS "2013 expiring contract".

It's a good FA class and I've only mentioned teams who will have some cap and who are either looking to rebuild or retool. The teams I picked to use as examples would better be able to reshape their teams for the better if they had the space to add a couple studs to their core.

Matt can you explain to me how the draft picks come back to us in all of this? Thanks

Toronto takes back salary to free cap space for other teams.

For the record I don't think this is realistic as Houston should be able to get much more for Kevin Martin. However Apollo was talking about what a team might do to make a huge splash in free agency.

Another example to this whole concept was when Denver sent Camby to the Clippers for a 2nd round pick. It wasn't to clear cap space in this example, rather to save luxury tax but it was the same concept of a team using salary cap space for something other than a free agent.

When the Rockets acquired Martin they really didn't give up that much. They got to dump off D-Bag---err I mean T-Mac(sorry guys) on somebody else and in the process also gave up Landry and Dorsey. Really the only thing of significance they gave up was Landry.